Cormac McCarthy - The Road

“You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerised. All the modern novel can do is done here.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

The Road shouldn’t be on this list. It belongs on many other lists, but disturbing isn’t one of them. This book is art.

Masterfully crafted with brilliant simplified descriptions which somehow evoke everything you’d experience at the end of the world. Cormac McCarthy employs the sparse writing style that pushes us subconsciously to enter his literary realm.

The lack of most grammatical devices, such as quotations to separate the speakers, is a turn off to many. For me it worked, it drew me in with an intense focus on the moment. At least six times I read this.

This story of a man and his son trying to survive, affixing a knowingly fruitless goal, a point A to point B, constant affirmations that they are the good guys “carrying the fire,” are the only motivation they have. The shared intimate moments the Man shares with his son are heart melting. And I’m pretty much a heartless guy.

The Road reads like a biblical passage, a parable on so many levels. Read it.